Cousin of Jermain Defoe fined over tinted windows

The cousin of Jermain Defoe has been fined for driving the Tottenham Hotspur
football player's £70,000 Range Rover with dangerously tinted windows,
without insurance and on a provisional driving licence.

Jermain Defoe: PC Rob Brettell told Southend Magistrates' Court that a check on the police national computer also revealed Edgar was not insured to drive his cousin's car and he only held a provisional licencePhoto: PA

8:00AM BST 02 May 2009

Ryan Edgar, 23, from Plaistow in east London, told the court Defoe had lent him the brand new sports car so he could drive to Canvey Island in Essex for a football training session.

When he was pulled over by a traffic police officer on April 17 last year the court heard tests revealed the driver and passenger windows were so heavily tinted they only let in 14 per cent of the light - when the legal limit is 70 per cent.

PC Rob Brettell told Southend Magistrates' Court that a check on the police national computer also revealed Edgar was not insured to drive his cousin's car and he only held a provisional licence.

"I saw the Range Rover front windows were extremely tinted, that's what drew my attention. It's a driver and pedestrian safety issue, the darker the windows the less light allowed through the window," he said.

"It would have been blatantly obvious the inside of the car would have been dark. If it had started to rain or if any street lights had been out the visibility would have been terrible. We deal with various degrees of the law and is this was in the worse we deal with."

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The court heard PC Brettell used a machine to measure the amount of light coming through the tinted windows and it ranged between 13.7 to 14.7 per cent.

Edgar represented himself but said he had been given advice by the solicitor, Nick Freeman also known has Mr Loophole, who was acting for Jermain Defoe until the case against him was thrown out.

Edgar, who is hoping to play for Luton Town Football Club next season, pleaded guilty to a charge of having no insurance but claimed his cousin told him it would be "sorted out".

He told the court his cousin had called his agent to arrange adding him onto the policy but the insurance company did not get the message until too late.

"He wouldn't have let me drive the car if he knew I wasn't insured. He's quite big in England, he wouldn't have put his name at risk by letting me drive the car because of the publicity," he said.

"As far as I was concerned I was insured, I would never have driven if I knew I wasn't."

He pleaded not guilty to a charge of driving a car in a dangerous condition and driving without a full licence.

Edgar told the court he passed his driving test at the age of 17 but clocked up six points for speeding within two years. He conceded that he might have had his licence revoked because of his points under young driver's legislation but because he had moved house he had not been notified.

He added that neither himself or Jermain Defoe had any idea the tinted windows were illegal.

He said: "He's tinted his car since he was driving, he wasn't aware and I wasn't aware of how dark. All the cars he's got are that percentage, he didn't didn't get told how dark it was."

Magistrate Stuart Blackshaw, said although he found Edgar a "credible witness" he found him guilty of driving without a full licence and driving a car with dangerously tinted windows.

The footballer was given an absolute discharge for the insurance and tinting charges and three points and a £150 fine for driving without a full licence. He was also ordered to pay £165 court costs and fines.